- Central African Republic: Swiss geologist and local miner kidnapped and killed
Source: ABC News
“A Swiss geologist and a local miner were killed on Thursday in the Central African Republic, north of the capital, Bangui, according to a statement from the local public prosecutor’s office on Monday. Luca Maggini and the miner were kidnapped by unidentified men in the evening and later killed, according to Frédéric Pounou, a geologist who was working alongside Maggini when he was kidnapped. … The attack occurred near the village of Gbango-Carriere, 55 kilometers (34 miles) north of Bangui, and also resulted in the kidnapping of a staff sergeant in the Central African Army, according to the public prosecutor’s statement.” (08/03/26)
- MI: Supreme Court rejects permit for Enbridge oil pipeline under Great Lakes
Source: CBC News [Canadian state media]
“The Michigan Supreme Court has ordered state regulators to reconsider a key permit that allowed a planned tunnel to carry an oil pipeline under part of the Great Lakes to move forward. The 6-1 decision further clouds the future of the 73-year-old pipeline owned by Canadian energy transportation company Enbridge that carries petroleum from Superior, Wis., to Sarnia, Ont. The part of the pipeline in question, called Line 5, runs for six kilometres along the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac where Lakes Huron and Michigan meet. Enbridge wants to bury the pipeline in a tunnel under the straits. Environmentalists and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer want to move the pipeline away from the waterway altogether, saying a spill would be catastrophic to the Great Lakes and surrounding area.” (08/03/26)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/michigan-supreme-court-enbridge-oil-pipeline-9.7294988
- Maduro backs Venezuela opposition talks from jail
Source: United Press International
“Ousted Venezuelan [ed-]President Nicolás Maduro voiced support from jail for a new round of negotiations between the government and the opposition, saying he welcomed ‘every path of dialogue that helps consolidate peace, coexistence and reconciliation among Venezuelans.’ The message was published Sunday on Maduro’s official Telegram account. The 63-year-old former leader issued the statement from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he has been held since U.S. authorities [abducted] him and his wife, Cilia Flores, in January 2026 on drug trafficking and weapons trafficking charges.” (08/03/26)
- TX: Federal Judge Lets US Heimatschutz Proceed With Berlin Wall Replica Through Town’s Levee System
Source: US News & World Report
“A federal judge is allowing the Department of Homeland Security to go ahead for now with plans to build a border wall through a levee system protecting a small Texas town on the border with Mexico, rejecting arguments by the town that the wall could lead to flooding. The decision late Sunday marks a victory for the Trump administration as it races ahead with efforts to build a $46 billion wall along the U.S.-Mexico border from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. The town of Presidio, with a population of about 3,200 people, argued the wall could cause flooding and that the administration isn’t following the law as it rushes forward with its plans. The town’s development district sued earlier this year to stop the department from going forward with construction.” (08/03/26)
- The New Big Three
Source: The Realist Review
by James W Carden“Surveying the devastation wrought by the wars in Ukraine and Iran, the Nigerian writer and former secretary general of African workers, Owei Lakemfa, concludes that ‘humanity is moving back to the pre-World War era when there were no agreed universal rules, might was right.’ Today, writes Lakemfa, ‘strongmen, and nations roam around as terrorists and bandits playing God. The strongest is the Zelensky, Netanyahu, and Trump triumvirate.’ This is how the world outside of NATO and Tel Aviv sees things. This might spur a normal country run by normal people to question the wisdom of its current course. Needless to say, in 2026, the US is no such country.” (08/03/26)
- Liberal Toleration and Ordinary Vices
Source: Liberalism.org
by Shal Marriott“Liberalism, which fundamentally defends a baseline commitment to pluralism, is at its core dedicated to the idea that we can agree to disagree. Toleration is represented not only through the political debates we engage in—it means that we, as individuals, are tolerant of one another. In a public sphere that is filled with polarized discourse, where the stakes of the present moment seem so exhaustingly high, and one’s own views are in need of a firm defense, an appeal to toleration becomes even more difficult. This makes it worth revisiting one of the age-old subjects of debates within the liberal tradition: what ought we, as liberals, to tolerate?” (08/03/26)
https://www.liberalism.org/p/liberal-toleration-and-ordinary-vices
- A Fantastic (and Very Funny) Act of Civil Disobedience
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger“When [Samuel] Tunick arrived at the airport, he was taken aside for special interrogation, where his luggage and his diary were subjected to careful search. They then asked for his cell phone, claiming that Tunick was suspected of possessing child pornography. It was a lie. According to an article at CNN.com, during a court hearing last week, officials admitted that they had no reason to suspect that Tunick possessed child-abuse material. They just made it up, knowing that nothing would happen to them if they were caught lying to an American citizen. Here comes the funny part. Tunick turned over his cell phone to them and gave them the password — well, not his regular password but instead a special password. When they punched in the special password, it activated software that automatically wiped the entire cellphone clean. All data gone. Poof! That is absolutely awesome.” (08/03/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/08/03/a-fantastic-and-very-funny-act-of-civil-disobedience/
- Laura Loomer: Everyone Is a Nazi, Except the Real Nazis in Ukraine
Source: Antiwar.com
by JD Hester“Israel and Laura Loomer’s opposition to Nazism is not consistent. While she frequently labels critics of Israel’s influence in America as Nazis or the ‘Woke Reich,’ she downplays the genuine ideological Neo-Nazism of the Azov Battalion. Likewise, the Israeli government has formed strong ties with the Azov Brigade. Regardless of whether the Brigade has stopped using Neo-Nazi symbols and rhetoric publicly, the idea that the entire organization has simply abandoned their deeply held political beliefs is absurd. Ultimately, Zionists seem to view the Azov Brigade, and the Ukrainian government in general, as ‘our Nazis.'” (08/03/26)
- David Hume, Political Philosopher
Source: Law & Liberty
by Max Skjönsberg“The year 1776 is notable for new beginnings. But it also saw the death of one of the greatest philosophers in the Western tradition. David Hume (1711–76) is often described by ideological labels such as liberal or conservative, as well as eighteenth-century party names (Whig and Tory). But these labels obfuscate Hume’s intentions. Neither an ideologue nor a party man, Hume thought about politics primarily as a philosopher searching for true answers. When we approach him first and foremost as a political philosopher, we are in a better position to revive and understand his substantial contributions to political thought.” (08/03/26)
https://lawliberty.org/forum/david-hume-political-philosopher/
- This law is killing US jobs AND harming national security
Source: New York Post
by staff“It’s hard to find a better example of a failed trade law than the Jones Act — which has now slashed US cargo-ship production to just a few vessels a year, while China’s building more than 4,000. President Donald Trump and Congress need to prioritize a repeal of this 100-year-old protectionist legislation ASAP. The law was supposed to boost the US merchant-marine industry by requiring that all shipping between US points use American-made, -owned, -crewed and -flagged vessels. But sky-high US manufacturing costs, which are passed on to shippers and ultimately consumers, made other alternatives — e.g., imports, land-based transportation — far more economical. The perverse result: Demand for US ships has plummeted, even as building costs soared.” (08/03/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/08/03/opinion/this-law-is-killing-us-jobs-and-harming-national-security/
- The Violence Is Inclusive
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob“‘I don’t feel safe going,’ Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel recently shared about her decision to skip the Michigan Democratic Party state convention later this month. ‘I don’t want to get chased around. I don’t want to get harassed. I don’t want to get yelled and screamed at.’ It’s a gathering of her own political party!” (08/03/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/08/03/the-violence-is-inclusive/
- Federal Farm Interventions: Harmful as Usual
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Stephen Anderson“US farms and ranches face rising debt in 2026. New York based Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA) released an article on February 25, 2026, entitled, ‘Farm Debt on the Rise as Federal Aid Counters Rising Expenses.’ The article described this federal government intervention from the Austrian economics viewpoint encouraged rising farm debt from federal aid. This article will cover US soybean farmers impacted by US government interventions described as aid programs. … Billions of dollars in annual payments seem small compared to other annual federal government entitlement programs like Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security. This aid program or waste annually harms US farmers and ranchers from being able to operate on their own and let free market pricing operate freely and voluntary exchange happen by human action.” (08/03/26)
https://mises.org/power-market/federal-farm-interventions-harmful-usual
- The Death of Middle-Class Tax Cuts as a Bulletproof Idea
Source: The New Republic
by Monic Potts“In April, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker and Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen separately introduced legislation that they promised would help with the affordability crisis. Booker’s bill, the Keep Your Pay Act, would erase income taxes for taxpayers who make less than $75,000; Van Hollen’s bill, which Booker has co-sponsored, would do the same but only for incomes below $46,000. The two Democrats, both of whom are rumored to be considering presidential runs, probably figured their legislation was a slam-dunk idea. After all, who doesn’t love a tax cut? But then something possibly unexpected happened: The left [sic] pushed back.” (08/03/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/213791/democrats-middle-class-tax-cuts-death-bulletproof-idea
- A Romp through the Fauci Diaries: Fame Turns to Shame
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Jeffrey A Tucker“Does Fauci catch on that the media was using him as much as he was using them; that is, that he inhabited a world of fakery? Maybe but he decides early on that it is his only choice. He has to keep it up, otherwise his whole world crumbles. He just kept going for one year, two years, then three. This Icarus just kept flapping his wings without realizing that they were melting. Another feature that stands out: It was always political theater and never about science.” (08/03/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/a-romp-through-the-fauci-diaries-fame-turns-to-shame/
- I’m a Democrat. Socialists need to stop leeching off my party and build their own
Source: Washington Examiner
by James Christopher“The Democratic Socialists of America was once a fringe movement. Its recent victories confirm it is now an increasingly powerful national political force. … The DSA’s primary election victories catapulted new political stars into the national spotlight and gave the movement further proof that it can defeat senior Democrats and reshape the party’s delegation. Yet the proverbial Democratic elephant in the room has become nationally consequential: If the DSA operates like a political party, why does it continue running candidates through another one? … DSA supporters reasonably argue that America’s two-party system makes independent organizing difficult and that separate socialist candidacies could help Republicans. But an organization calling for multiparty democracy should help create one, not depend indefinitely on the Democratic ballot line.” (08/03/26)
- What Is a Think Tank?
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Douglas Carswell“‘What is a think tank?’ is a question I get asked all the time. The job of a think tank is to generate the ideas that politicians implement in office. If politics were the movie industry, those we elect would be the stars on the big screen; think tanks help write the script. ‘But don’t politicians have ideas of their own?’ I hear you ask. Of course they do (though having spent 12 years in the House of Commons before running a think tank, I’d suggest they have them less often than you might imagine). Even with a clear goal—cutting taxes, improving childcare, encouraging growth—elected leaders often need help with the details of how to make it happen. Free-market think tanks have been enormously influential.” (08/03/26)
- How a Manufactured War Scare Could Produce a $50 Million Insider Windfall
Source: Common Dreams
by Claude H Miller“Military threats move markets before they move armies. Announce a massive strike against Iranian oil, military, and infrastructure sites, and traders will immediately begin pricing in damaged production, regional retaliation, interrupted shipping, higher insurance costs, and possible disruption of the Strait of Hormuz. No missile needs to be launched. The announcement itself can add a substantial geopolitical premium to every barrel of oil. Cancel the attack a few days later, however, and much of that premium may disappear just as quickly. … for someone possessing advance knowledge of both the threat and its prearranged cancellation, the same sequence could provide an extraordinary opportunity to profit from a government-created price movement in both directions.” (08/03/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/how-to-make-money-on-war-with-insider-information
- Reason Roundtable, 08/03/26
Source: Reason
“Is Democratic Socialism Going National?” (08/03/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/08/03/is-democratic-socialism-going-national/
- Gracearchy with Jim Babka, episode 165
Source: Gracearchy with Jim Babka
“Is Anthony Fauci Just a Scapegoat?” (08/03/26)
https://rumble.com/v7dmh4a-is-anthony-fauci-just-a-scapegoat-gracearchy-with-jim-babka-165.html
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 08/03/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Iran War Sinking Republicans Ahead Of Midterms.” (08/03/26)
- The Liberty Dad Podcast, episode 757
Source: The Liberty Dad Podcast
“Can Libertarian Ideas Work (Answering Critics).” (08/03/26)